The feeling of letting your hair down and giving your scalp a good scritch is an unbeatable sensation. It's on par with walking into a room and seeing your cat curled up in the blanket bed you made for them, or squishing your face into a sun-warmed kitten belly (my daily quarantine activities are 1. petting my cats, and 2. smelling my hair). So when a record-busting international haircare brand renowned for its incredible smell launched stateside, I hopped at the chance to try it.
For some background, Monday Haircare branched out from its native New Zealand earlier this year to launch in Australia, where it promptly sold out six months of stock in four weeks. The global migration continued when it came to the U.S. in late January, and unveiled at Ulta in February with four matching shampoo and conditioner formulas for moisture, volume, smoothing, and scalp-soothing.
All of the shampoos and conditioners go for $8, and they pair paraben-free, amino acid-rich formulas with an addictively sniffable gardenia scent. Everything comes in recycled plastic bottles, and if you've seen Kevin Murphy's likewise recycled line, it's a similar shape for a reason: The modular design minimizes wasted space while shipping, per the brand. Plus, it looks cool.
Shop now: $8; ulta.com
I have super curly, 3a-type hair, so I trialled the brand's Moisture shampoo and conditioner. Oribe products were my previous high standard for excellent-smelling hair care, but Monday gives them stiff competition — and as glorious as Oribe products smell, $49 for a shampoo isn't always feasible ("in this economy?"). At $8, Monday's is just as good.
The shampoo is pretty standard, a medium-thin consistency that easily penetrates my thick hair to cleanse away oil and buildup. The conditioner is about two notches thicker, and I was initially nervous, because my hair tends to appreciate a cake icing-texture to hydrate and detangle. But it does the job, and the real guns come out blazing when my hair dries.
I used the conditioner as a leave-in for the full experience, and when my hair dried I found it soft, bouncy, and lusciously hydrated. Stretching four days between washes is my third quarantine hobby, and typically my hair's looking a little ratty by the end of it — but on day three, a coworker commented that my hair looked so healthy on Zoom, they needed to know my secret.
Shop now: $8; ulta.com
Truly, I thought that kind of inquiry only happened in commercials. But it turns out the duo's shea butter, panthenol, and hydrolyzed rice protein-rich formulas makes my capitalism-inflicted dreams come true, and turns Monday into something I look forward to. My only qualm is that the bottle's white font is a bit hard to decipher on the light pink background, so I need to look elsewhere for shower reading material. But for $8, and with a scent that lasts for days? I'll manage.
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